Liver Works OT

Sorry everyone, but I have been busy/lazy lately. I just haven't made myself sit down in front of the computer and write a blog. I'm really not in the mood to do it right now either, but am going to make myself.

I will head straight for this weekend and not bore you with the little details of my average week. Friday night Jenster, Ando and I headed out to dinner at a little burger joint called Zip's. Luckily enough we found a parking place right next to the "best bar in Cincinnati", according to Joel, Muzz's. I may have that quote wrong too; he may have just said it had the best juke box in Cincinnati. Either way both statements are totally false.

The burgers were good and we all decided a bit better than Quatman's simply because they had more toppings. You can actually get tomato and pickles at Zip's not just lettuce and onion like you do at Quatman's. Ando also decided this was exactly what he was craving that night. And we all know that when Ando is happy Shando is happy!

After dinner we headed down to none other than The Gypsy Hut. We sat outside and just talked while drinking. Jenster and Ando were falling asleep, early I might add, so we decided to head home. On our way out we were offered a free shot from Pablo and who can say no to that. He made us his special creation: The Seedless. It had a faint watermelon taste to it; overall not bad. After our free shot we stuck around a little longer at the bar before heading home.

Saturday I knew I wanted to get a couple of things accomplished around the house, mainly painting the garage, so I got after it early. Ando also left early to meet up with his dad and borrow their van to buy the wood for our new porch ceiling. That's right the wood is finally at our house now it just needs to go up. It only took how many years? I really don't know, I have lost track of time since that one fateful night when the porch swing fell. I ended up not getting as far as I would have like on the garage painting, bit in the end it didn't matter because the store was out of the paint we needed to tint brown. It wouldn't be in till Sunday so I had to only finishes the white squares on the garage, bummer!

That evening Teed, yep Teed came out with us, Jenster, Ando and I headed down to Sawyer Point for Brew Ha Ha! It is a "festival" where there are a ton of micro brews on tap and some comedy thrown in. Of course we went for the beer and not the comedy acts. You could buy a whole beer or just a sample of anything you wanted. Here is the kicker though. A whole beer was four dollars and a sample was only one. But we found out that it took three samples to fill the cup for a full beer. The rest of the night was spent sticking it to the man. Yep, we invested in a large cup, well at least Teed and I did, and then just bought a couple of samples to fill the big cup up. Beer tastes so much sweeter when you know you're getting a deal.

About halfway through the night Ando's parents and brother, Mateo, showed up and joined us in some brew. I think by this time we were all a little tipsy and they didn't know how to treat us. They may have been a little take aback. When we finally finished all our beer tickets we headed to Grammar's downtown. Teed and Jenster weren't real keen on going there, but Rando was going to meet us so they were in. It was my first time there and I really liked it; I would definitely go back. They had free popcorn, with lots of toppings, and board games to play. We happened to sit at a table with Jenga on it and what we like to call it's step child, Jumbling Towers. The problem with Jumbling Towers was that the pieces weren't the same size when you built the tower. As you rotated the layers they didn't line up to form a perfect square every time. We settled on the better game, no Jenga, to play; Ando lost, but it was a really tall tower. To make a long story short, too late I know, we drank too much in a short period of time, but it was fun while it was happening.

Needless to say the next day I didn't fell so good, but I really wanted to finish painting the garage since I wasn't going to be home the following weekend. I had to get off my lazy, hung over butt and go pick up the paint. I finished painting the garage, but am still going to have to touch up in a few places. That night we Ando and I along with Teed and Mo went over to Jenster's house for some dinner. She made us some veggies and pork chops on the grill. Jenster was also having a plumbing problem that Teed and Ando tried to fix for her. They were not successful in their endeavor except to break off her elbow joint, which she now has to replace.

I don't think I will get another post in before I leave for NYC on Friday so this may have to keep you tied over till I get home on Wednesday. Maybe I will write a short blog when I am in New York, but I may not have time.

I drank and drank and drank; clearly no baby on board with me.

Low Key

Well it has been a week since I last wrote and nothing too exciting has happened. I also don't have any pictures to share with you so I am going to make this a quick post.

I have basically been working a lot, but luckily they have been mostly day shifts. The fall sports season is fast approaching so I am taking in all the 9 to 5 days I can and savoring every minute. The one bright spot is that we hired a new part time employee who will be working all night and weekend shoots so I will only have half as many shoots to do this year.

My weekend wasn't crazy exciting, but of course I still went out. On Friday the whole gang, well the usual suspects, hung out on Jenster's porch and grilled out for the evening. I made some hummus and Teed said it lived up to the standards of Jenster's. I thought for sure he wouldn't eat any because it would be as good as Jenster's, but I was wrong. Ando went to the store before the grill out and bought us all some treats. He got a bag of Jalapeño Cheetos, Mo and Jenster couldn't get enough, and pudding pops. As you can guess the pudding pops went over a little better than the Cheetos.

I was going to spend my whole day Saturday giving the house a good cleaning, but realized two rooms in I was fighting a losing battle. Ando is still working on the electricity and drilling holes into walls so once I cleaned something it would just get dirty again. Plus Ando has piles of supplies strewn all over the house that I don't know what to do with. I abandoned cleaning and moved on to mowing the grass, which hadn't been done in three weeks, oh how we need some rain, and then washing my car. I can't believe that I have now washed my car twice this summer by myself.

That night Jenster, Ando and I decided to hit up the Comet for some burritos. When Ando and I arrived we were pleasantly greeted his cousin, Olive Oil and his girlfriend Libra, and another cousin, Francois. They also came for the food so we all sat together for dinner and some drinks. It happened that both of Libra's brothers also showed up to make the whole night a truly family affair. Ando and I also found out that Francois and Stewie, her boyfriend, just got engaged. There will be another wedding on Ando's side of the family. That will make three is less than a year when you count our wedding.

After The Comet we headed down to Northside Tavern to check out the new addition. We kept hearing how nice and big it was, but still hadn't seen it for ourselves. Everyone was right when talking about how big it is. The room comes out from the back where the restrooms used to be. Well the women's is still there, but they got rid of the men's. There is a stage back there and another full bar. It's a little weird too because it smells all new and it has never been smoked in before. Northside Tavern just got bumped up a few notches on places we can head in the winter time. You can now sit in the front room and not be overwhelmed with music blasting at you.

On Sunday Jenster, Mo and I went to the Hyde Park Farmers' Market. It was a quick little trip, but still a good time. That night the gang came over to our house for some dinner and Bengal's watching. I knew I would only be interested in the first half because preseason games are worth nothing. That is about how long I made it before losing complete interest in the game. I must say the Bengal' s looked terrible and Chris Henry won't help!

NST added a new room and I need to check it out some more; I won't be adding my own little addition soon.

By the way a new poll is up in case you didn't notice because you don't scour my blog close enough!

Amazing 24 Hours!

Well a lot has happened in the last 24 hours so I am going to go over the weekend rather quickly since nothing too exciting happened.

Friday I had a date with Mo and Taca for a nice walk at Sharon Woods. We had a nice walk on a beautiful day and once again Taca just slept through it all. Mo and I are going to have to go again so Taca can enjoy everything around her. That night it was time to celebrate Ando's birthday. Grant it his birthday wasn't till Sunday, but who wants to celebrate on a Sunday. We met up with my sis, Rando and Lambic at Hofbrauhaus. Ando and I had a gift certificate that was going to expire the next day so we needed to use it up. It was really quite easy to use up $25 there. Of course I ended up eating too many fried foods and drank too many liters of beer, but hey it was Ando's birthday.

Saturday I just felt like I drank too much the night before. But somehow I did manage to go for a run, work in the yard, and head to work for a little David Cassidy. We only taped the first two songs of David Cassidy and then I headed home, or should I say to Teed and Mo's. They saved some food and beer for me to enjoy after work. It was another nice night out so we sat on the front porch and enjoyed each others company, even Taca's.

On Sunday I got to go to another shower. This time it was a baby shower, for my cousin. I haven't seen her or her family in a long time as we aren't that close, but since I had nothing else going on, sorry Ando, I decided to go. It was a typical shower with lots of food and lots of presents. Luckily there were no games at this shower either.

When I got home from the shower I made Ando some birthday cookies. We only had coconut cake and I know he isn't a big fan so I made cookies for him instead. He requested Oatmeal Chocolate Chip so that is exactly what I made for him. I took some of the cookies with us to his aunt and uncles house for dinner that night, along with Ando's parents. They had invited us to go out on their boat during the day, but we couldn't go since I had the baby shower to go to. Dinner was very good and who can complain about sitting outside every day for dinner in the same weekend. I wish every weekend was this nice in Cincinnati in August.

Ok so that was a bit longer of a weekend description than I thought it was going to be, but now we will get to the fun stuff. I left work early on Monday to go running with my sister because she had to go early in order to make dinner with my parents. I wasn't invited, but then I was there when my parents came to pick up my sister so they wanted to know if I was coming. I didn't think I was going to, but they threw a new twist in. My bother, the oldest, and his wife were going to go along with their newly adopted child. Yep, that's right I am now an aunt. My brother and his wife adopted a three year old little boy from foster care. They just got him this weekend after many weekend visits and of course paperwork. He is very shy, but once you are around him for a little bit he opens up. He even offered to share his ice cream with me when I asked for a bite. I am super excited for them and can't wait to get to know my nephew a little better.

When we got home from dinner I notice a smell outside our house. It was the same smell that occurred outside our house about two years ago. It was the smell of a rotting animal. I thought for sure we had another dead cat in our window well, but Ando and I couldn't find anything. We looked and looked and looked, but there was nothing. We finally gave up since it was getting dark out and figured we would deal with it later.

Well later had to be in the morning. Our house stunk and I couldn't stand the smell of rotting animal anymore. Once again we looked and looked and looked for the smell when finally we found it. There was something under the front porch right up against the foundation of the house. It was now time to try and rig something up to fish it out. First up was a makeshift shovel. Ando nailed two 2x4's together along with a scrap pice of wood to act as a shovel to scoop the stench out. That wasn't working so it was on to plan b. This time it was two pieces of wood nailed together with a small strip at the end. In the strip were some rails to act as a rake. As Ando was calling it, the opossum rake. There you have it we had an opossum die under our front porch.

The second contraption worked wonders and we were able to get the little guy out and onto the makeshift shovel where he then went straight to a garbage bag. And in case you are wondering Ando did put the Vick's Vapo Rub under his nose to try and stave off the smell. Luckily the opossum wasn't as decomposed as the cat was, or at least that is what Ando told me, and it wasn't covered in maggots. I really didn't think this would happen to us again and I hope we won't get a third dead animal to deal with. I must say at least it was nice out today to air out the house while we were both at work. I couldn't have dealt with that smell much longer.

This evening Ando and I went to his parents house for a birthday dinner celebration. Even Mateo was there to help celebrate. He just came home from a two week stay with Coriander.

We had a smelly dead opossum under the porch and I didn't throw up; I can't be with child.

Sicky

Well it hasn't been over a week since my last post so hopefully this blog won't be quite as long. Since I left off on Friday I will start off with Saturday. I went to a bridal shower on Saturday for Ando's cousin. She is getting married on September 20th and it was time for the family shower. I wasn't sure if I was going to feel uncomfortable at one of Ando's family things without Ando, but it turned out to be just fine. I had enough people to talk to and there were no awkward games either. It was just some mingling, with alcohol of course, then lupper followed by presents. I realized I forgot to bring my camera about half way through present opening, sorry for that. 

That night Jenster, Ando and I went to the movies; we headed to Newport on the Levee to see Batman. It has been a long long time since I saw a movie in the theater. I think it was No Country for Old Men and just like Batman this time it was in a small theater. I don't understand why AMC keeps putting big movies in such small theaters. I know it is showing on a number of screens, but it is still too new and popular to put in a small theater. The show was packed in case you couldn't get that from my rant. Back to Batman.....It was good, but about a half hour or forty five minutes too long. There were a number of places they could have stopped and picked back up in the next movie, but of course didn't. I also didn't think Heath Ledger as The Joker was Oscar worthy. I thought he was good, but I am not sure it was Oscar good. I don't think people would be talking about him winning the Oscar if he was still alive; just my take.

On Sunday Jenster, Ando and I went to the Lebanon Bike Trail for a ride. We were all amazed at how crowded it was and how hard it was to find a parking space, but once you rode out a bit it wasn't as crowded. This was my first time on the bike path and I was amazed at how flat it was. Since it was so flat we ended up riding 12 miles out before turning around. If you add that up we ended up going on a 23 mile bike ride. I wasn't really mentally prepared for that, but amazingly I wasn't sore the next day. 

That evening Ando took me to his work party. I got to meet all of his co-workers and their significant others. It was a little strange to hear him introduce me as his finace as well. The party started out just as I thought it was going to be.....douche chill. (which for all you non Arrested Development fans mean awkward) After a a few alcoholic beverages it got better. And the food was amazing. Ando's boss and his wife made Sri Lankan food. I want Ando to get the recipes so I can try to make some of it, but I doubt that will happen. All in all the night could have been much worse. 

And now the the reason I didn't write this blog on Monday; I got sick. I started feeling bad on Sunday late at night and it progressively got worse on Monday. I only worked a half day before coming home to sleep it off. I took a two hour nap and went to bed at 10 that night. I also used the neti pot, drank some OJ, ate blueberries and black berries and gargled Dimetapp. I used everything I could to make me feel better, and it worked. The next morning I was feeling well enough to go to work. And work is what I did on Tuesday and Wednesday.  

I took Dimetapp without consulting my doctor; I must not be pregnant. 

The Most Longest Post in the Universe

Well in case you couldn't get it from the title of this blog it is going to be a long one. A lot has happened in one weeks time and so much of it is bloggable. Since so much happened I will try to break it down by days.

Friday:

CB Radio and Goose got into town for a couple of days on Friday morning, early; I didn't get to see their arrival since I was already at work. That evening we all went out to dinner at Nada. Teed and Mo even got a babysitter for Taca so they could come join us as well. We weren't originally planning on Nada, but after being blown off twice by the new Ethiopian restaurant, Emanu, in Pleasant Ridge we decided to head somewhere else. We just wanted to know if we could bring our own alcohol or not, but apparently they didn't have time to answer such a question and hung up on Goose.

We weren't sure how long of a wait Nada would be, but it turned out to only be about a 15 minute wait. This was my first experience at Nada; you really can't count when we tried to go and couldn't get in. The food was good, but our waiter was a little weird. He was flirting with girls at the bar area the whole time, who were barely dressed.

After our dinner we headed down to The Hut, of course. It was a pretty nice night out so we all sat on the patio. It ended up that 007 and Lehigh were also in town for the night. They met up with us at The Hut where a good time was had by all. We closed down the bar, and headed back to our place for a nice night of rest.

Saturday:

CB Radio and Goose went off to their own little world on Saturday without Ando and I. I am making it sound like they abandoned us, but that isn't the case at all. Ando and I had the annual golf outing on Saturday. It was a little different this year in that Ando and I weren't on the same team. We randomly drew cards when we got there and it turned out Ando and I drew separate cards. My team didn't win, of course my team never does, but I think this was the best I have ever done golfing. It was probably because I didn't practice at all before hand.

That night Ando and I hosted a grill out at our house. It seemed like it was going to be pretty low key at first with just Jenster, Teed, Mo, Goose, CB Radio, and I, but somehow we managed to get most of our friends out of the woodwork to come over. Once again it was a beautiful, not too muggy, night so we spent most of the time outside. I hope our neighbors aren't mad at us for having a party late into the night. And by late into the night I mean mostly Rando and Goose staying up till 5 am; everyone else hit the hay closer to midnight or 1 am.

Sunday:

Sunday was mostly a recovery day. Ando and I went out to lunch and ran a couple of errands in the morning/early afternoon, but then just relaxed till we went to his parents for dinner. It was kind of nice not having obligations to meet. Dinner at his parents was good, with a new meal his dad had never made before. It was basically shrimp with onions, potatoes, and corn all simmered with beer and seasonings in one pot. Very yummy and something Ando and I may try to make one night.

When dinner was finished, and my Wii fit training, Ando and I met up with CB Radio and Goose at The Southgate House to see John Waters speak/stand up comedy. It was a little pricey to get in, but he was up there for quite a long time, about an hour and a half total, and it was pretty funny. My favorite part of the evening was after the show and a lady sitting in front of us stood up to leave; she was wearing a long denim skirt and John Waters was talking earlier in his act about women wearing long denim patchwork skits to go vote. He didn't understand why people had to look like this and couldn't dress up. I guess at least it wasn't a patchwork denim skirt.

Monday:

I am going to skip the work part of Monday because no one really cares about work. I am heading straight for Monday night when it was time for Murray's wing night. This was a tradition many years ago to head to Murray's on Monday nights, but as you may guess the tradition was dropped long ago. We decided to head back to the old stomping grounds, and boy am I glad we did. Apparently on Monday night it is $2 import night. Yep, all imports are only $2 the whole night. CB Radio and I cleaned the place out of Red Stripe so we both had to move on to other imports at the end of the night. I don't know how I can pass up such a great opportunity every Monday night, but I know I 'm going to.

The best part of the evening though was another patron at the bar. She was wearing a dress that was way too small for her. And by too small I mean you could see her nipples. She was wearing a strapless dress that didn't come up past her breasts. It cut off right in the middle of her boobs and everyone in the bar could see some nip. When she left the room the whole place was talking about how you could see her nipples. How can you leave the house knowing your nipples are showing? I wish I had a picture of this for you, but alas I didn't have my camera with me and I'm not sure how I would have gotten a picture of her anyway.

After Murray's it was off to Gas Light for a night cap. Jenster met us at the bar to have a drink as well. We also played darts, which I haven't done in quite some time. I need to pick up darts again when we go out to bars.

Tuesday:

Tuesday was Goose and CB Radio's last night in town and they still hadn't seen baby Taca. Jenster offered to have us over for a bit so Teed could bring the babe over without having to pack a bunch of stuff up to bring down to our house. There really isn't much to say about Tuesday except that we all got to hold Taca, who is getting bigger and bigger, I guess that is what babies do, and sit around one last time before the NYCer's left.

Wednesday:

Sadly our house guests left early in the morning and I cried the whole rest of the day at work. Everyone kept asking what was wrong with me, but I just couldn't get it out over all the tears. Okay not really, but it is a little sad when people leave; I like having out of towners in to mix things up a bit. I guess it is back to the old routine now.

That evening Ando and I met with the priest who is going to marry us to take our compatibility test. I think we both passed, or at least I hope. The test wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and most of the questions were very straight forward. Really if you haven't talked about most of what is on the test then I'm not sure you should be getting married. My favorite part of the test was when filling out the personal questions. It asked how long you have been dating in months and Ando and I both did he math and realized there weren't enough spaces for us. We both put down 99 since it could only be a two digit number and Ando and I have been dating into the three digits. I guess not many people go over the 99 months.

Thursday:

Is this post getting long enough for you? Luckily for you I don't really have anything to say about Thursday. I did have to work at night, After Hours @ the Square. Before work I went shopping and found what I have been looking so hard for, a tube top. I finally found one that I liked at Target of all places. It isn't too fitted, but isn't too baggy like they all seem to be now a days either. I bet you all can't wait to see me in it!

Friday:

We have now come full circle, Friday to Friday. Ando, Jenster and I went down to Fountain Square for the Indie Summer on the Square series. Mallory was playing and the DT's came in from Indiana to see them so we met up with them. There were actually a lot of people down there. It is taking some getting used to seeing downtown somewhat crowded. When Mallory was finished playing we all headed over to Nicholson's for some more drinks. We had some on the Square, surprisingly only $3 for 16 oz. beers; I thought they would be at least $5. Ando ended up drinking more than he wanted to because they had Chimay on tap. I had a Leffe which they also had on tap. Why we don't go down just for some good beer on draught more often I have no idea. This may also be something I will try to institute into my routine.

I think that is all for now. If you actually made it through this whole blog in on sitting you really deserve a prize. I will try to think of something to give everyone, but it may just have to be something over the internet since I have readers from all over the globe!

I crammed a lot into one week; I'm not dead tired, which means I'm not pregnant.